SOURCE: "Irish Eyes," in Film Comment, Vol. 26, No. 1, January-February, 1990, pp. 9-11, 68-71.

In the following interview, Jordan discusses different influences on his work and how he approaches filmmaking.

Neil Jordan lives in Bray, near Dublin and even nearer to the Irish Sea, just next door to the house where James Joyce lived and wrote. The setting couldn't be more perfectly suited had he been a character in one of his own stories or films: quintessentially and romantically Irish, yet also one step beyond, off the beaten path. Jordan's "Irishness" comes through most clearly in his literary finesse—including his film scripts—as well as his subterranean Stephen Dedalus-like view of love and sexuality.

The author of a collection of short stories, Night in Tunisia, and the novels The Past and Dream of a Beast, Jordan has written and directed several feature films: Angel, released in the U.S...